January 17, 2005

Dear Friends,

I broke my right arm on Christmas Day (falling off of a scooter), and I am right-handed. Obviously, this has slowed me down quite a bit when it comes to adding new material to TheOldenTimes.com, much to my frustration!

The break is in a spot in my elbow that makes it hard to cast, so I'm told it will be slower to heal. I can still type, but it wears on me quickly, as does too much "mousing," which I must to to get new images online. If I weren't able to communicate online, I think it would be like having my tongue cut out! It's not much fun: it hurts, it spoiled my hunting season completely, and lots of things don't get done when Mom doesn't do them. You wives and moms out there know what that means!

And yes, we doctors do make terrible patients.

But it could be a lot worse, and I'm grateful to still be able to do a lot of things I thought I wouldn't be able to do. I've also gotten to read some great books, ranging from Charles Dickens' Curiosity Shop to Michael Crichton's Fear Factor.

Unless the orthopedic doc says "no more computer work," at which point they'll probably want to start looking for a straightjacket, I'll still be adding to this site regularly, albeit more slowly than usual. Still, there are literally thousands of pages already online (over 8,500), so I hope that perhaps you'll find something that will  entertain you a bit even while you wait for me to get back up to speed! If nothing else, you might even find some long out-of-print history of  one of your more challenging surnames in the Bookstore,  a nice journal for your favorite niece, or something special for your husband, since he decided that he's now a chef after having received that George Foreman grill for Christmas! Should you be on the adventurous side in the kitchen, yourself, try out on of the old recipes!

You can still expect to see something new online here every day, or at least almost daily.

I hope your holidays were wonderful and safe. Mine really were nice, except for that little trip to the ER, and I still like that Trikke I  crashed, though now I will heed the safety warnings more carefully and avoid the potholes in my driveway!

Thanks again for visiting, and happy hunting!

Barbara